Spreading word is pretty challenging and not easy task. What would you do to spread word? Run naked on the street and shout, give free TV sets or maybe involve cockroaches? Yikes!
ZOO YORK - the skateboard producer - announced "Spread the Word" contest. Participants have to post the video on YouTube showing how to spread the word. Cockroaches get definitely attention.
It is apparently what Facebook applications are for - having fun.
There are 911,343,980 installs across 24,459 apps on Facebook. Read more about most popular application on Adonomics.
Tags: facebook, applications
I've found very interesting artickle on a research on DVR owners. We already know that DVR owners watch fewer TV ads and the latest research by Information Resources Inc. showed that buying of new packaged products in households owning DVR was 5% lower han in non - DVR households. About 20% of all brands in the study lost statistically significant volume in DVR households.
Reality can't be ignored. Reality strikes back. It can't be your ad isn't seen anymore.
Read more here in Marketing mag.
The new fitness centre was opened in Copenhagen - Hello Fitness. It is 100% green - the training takes place in nature. It sounds enough appealing to me! Sports should be exercised outdoors. There is nothing worse than smelly and dampy gym. The Hello Fitness combines the nature with the community. The idea is to create the feeling of support between participants extendend to online community. There is always someone you can exercise with, there is always someone to support you in your efforts. Fabulous idea and the it costs only ca. $20 monthly, which equals one pizza and DVD. The choice is yours :-)
You can also become fan of Hello Fitness on Facebook (it is in Danish only)
'We Think' by Charles Leadbeater explores the potential and the power of the mass creativity. This neat video presents the main ideas from the book. I wait impatiently for my Amazon delivery.
Tags: we think, charles leadbeater
Via Only Dead Fish
"It is essential that media agencies have more input into the creative brief" said David Kenny, the chairman-CEO of Publicis Group's Digitas
Being media savvy is really important in the increasingly fragmented and diversified media world. There is no fix solutions and creative ideas must reflect media environment in order to work. It is trivial to say it over and over but we can't make campaigns based on closed communication models that seems to be alive in many advertising agencies. I've attended a couple of meetings where ad agency presented first their great idea and then came up with a couple of slides for media agency - their media recommendation (newspapers and TV), without even giving a thought whether their message can thrive in the given media. Media aren't only about buying advertising space and optimizing reach at low cost. Media are about understanding how and when connect with consumers and establish your brand / message in their lives. Media are about well-thought communication solutions and maximizing your reach via creating social networks or becoming part of them. You can't achieve a success with your great picture and slogan on it that you throw like a bomb on the consumers. Bombs explode and destroy. Media used wisely - connect and build. We, at Vizeum work with connections planning where the starting point is not only collecting consumers insights but understanding human's motivations behind media usage. This is what should drive ideas. Ideas, messages should fit media "personality", otherwise our messages are like bull in a china shop.
"Medium is the message" McLuhan
In my humble opinion, it is not about who takes a lead, it is not about who is more important on the client's partners list. It is about COLLABORATION. Both media and advertising agencies are on the same side. It just makes me sad that we perceive each other as competitors and collect efforts to prove who's better. We should reunite our efforts and talents to create unforgettable and effective solutions. We should get married!'
Photo by *Solar ikon*
Tags: advertising, media, collaboration, David Kenny, connection planning
The last week brought some big news "Facebook Falters In Europe" according to the latest traffic data (Nielsen)
- UK: 8.5 million unique users in Britain spent time on Facebook in January, down from 8.9 million in December
- France: 1.87 million unique users in January, down from 1.89 million in December
- Spain: 659.000 unique users in January, down from 682.000
According to comScore, Facebook levels off in USA and keeps on growing worldwide.
Facebook in USA
Facebook Worldwide
We are talking about decline that is the consequence of the "friendly spam" deflouring Facebook and privacy issues. The European decline is also the sign for the stabilization of the hype that was created around Facebook. We are living in times where online and social services and brands take off primarily due to hypes created by easily influenced people influencing other easily influenced people and generate interest -> traffic. At some point it gets stabilized, people get bored, seek for something new, they want the new hype, the new stimuli.
"A lot of people who jumped onto Facebook over the past year and built up their friends and used applications are tiring of it," said Alex Burmaster from Nielsen "The aura has worn off a bit."
Via Techcrunch & Guardian
Tags: Facebook, social networks, social media, traffic
According to a new study released by Starcom MediaVest Group there aren't many who click on banner ads. So called heavy clickers have huge influence on the picture - 6% of people online account for 50% of display ad clicks.
"Heavy clickers skew towards Internet users between the ages of 25-44 and households with an income under $40,000. Heavy clickers behave very differently online than the typical Internet user, and while they spend four times more time online than non-clickers, their spending does not proportionately reflect this very heavy Internet usage. Heavy clickers are also relatively more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career services sites – a markedly different surfing pattern than non-clickers.”
What makes people click actually? The urge, the need or maybe just a curiosity. There must be a strong message and reason to evoke clicking reaction. It seems like we have some online human type that loves clicking probably for clicking sake and profound curiosity what's behind.
Tags: Internet, clicks, StarcomMediaVest
...from Internet
"Last year, "women's community" was the most visited and fastest growing Internet category, tied with politics, according to a ComScore Media Metrix year-end report. The number of unique visits to women's community sites jumped 35% to almost 70 million from 52 million."
Read more on AdAge to discover what women actually seek online?
Tags: Internet, Women, Communities
Tired of thinking, intelligent discussions - try mainstream media. Funny and true.
Mainstream Media Commercial on FunnyOrDie.com
I have been sitting at focus groups with teenagers yesterday and I was pretty surprised with their advertising awareness. It was pretty exciting to hear them talking about ads and what is catching their attention. Today, I've got from my friend at Dist the link to great videos with girls explaining while ads got a flip.
I am pretty reserved to hearing people's rational analysis of ads, but those girls had very insightful comments. The whole series of videos just showed how detached from their customers advertisers are. Behind some rational words, real gems were hidden - precious insights like those two:
Videos are done by 3iying, which is an all Girl Creative agency, based in New York City, a think tank working to make better ads, products and media for other girls. Good intiative and we should watch and listen very carefully what they have to say.
You can watch all videos here
Tags: 3ying, advertising, print, girls, insights
FirebrandTV has introduced today the multimedia platform with "commercials as content". The best ads will be chosen by a panel of Gen Y. You can not only watch the cool commercials but also within a click you get an access to promotions and you can buy the products. FirebrandTV will also have CJ (commercials jockeys - someone like VJ) "to contextualize commercials as art and guide viewers through the spots, contests and promotions.". It launches 22nd October on three platforms: TV (ION Television Network), web and mobile (through iTunes and MSN)
Investors behind the project are: Microsoft, NBC Universal and GE’s Peacock Equity Fund, ION Television, as well as Adweek, Brandweek and Mediaweek, among others, joined Firebrand at its announcement during Advertising Week at the Paley Center for Media.
This is a great idea of distributing advertising using "pull" methods and combining it with merchandise option. It will be interesting to watch as it sets the new standard for traditional TV advertising. The fact is that people don't hate commercials, people hate being forced to watch the bad and boring commercials. I am looking forward to hear people's reaction to it and see how is it working in real life. I think the sales aspect is very interesting, transferring ad liking into sales.
Crayon is handling the social media aspect of Firebrand - check out what they have already done: YouTube, Myspace, Facebook, Flickr and Delicious Links.
Tags: firebrandtv, advertising, content, sales
I've learned during my study a lot about statistics in combination with philosophy. My favorite professor who taught in methodology of sociological research always told us - numbers are what you say they are. It is true. Numbers are very flexible, they seem to be objective as they are perceived as hard facts. Numbers describe the reality which we can control. Numbers remove the randomness. What I've also learned was the inevitable need for observing the individual's experiences and ideas. Researchers should study reality as a social actors (subjectively - understanding people's motivations), not as an independent observers (objectively - understanding people as numbers). The truth is that you can never connect with a number. You hear lots of people in media and advertising business claiming that people comes first to add afterwards: we can reach 75% of target group. And so what? 75% can translate in many things depending on what we want to say. But it doesn't say anything constructive, it doesn't help us to lose any communication challenge or neither takes any closer to people (target group as some call them).
I have seen a couple of examples of the numbers tyranny in the pursue of explaining reality. For me it looked more like manipulation and completely lack of understanding of what's going on. This week, there were released to surveys about the use of digital and traditional media in Denmark. First of them, conducted by Explora, focused on the 15-24 years old and the conclusion was: This is a myth that you can't reach young people via TV advertising. Explora found out that young people spend 84 minutes on watching TV and only 11 minutes online. Here comes the best - they measured only 136 Danish websites!! How on earth can you draw any conclusions on youth Internet usage based on 136 websites? Numbers show only the part of reality.
Another research covered the new media usage compared to the traditional media amongst "the early adapters" and was conducted by Danish national TV station TV2 and ACNielsen. The conclusion was: the young people with high interest in technology has still high consumption of traditional media. Research responsible at TV2 believes that the increasing usage of the new media and internet don't decrease the time spent with traditional media, there is no cannibalization. So far so good. The early adapters spend in all 9 hours and 32 minutes daily consuming media (150 min. with TV, 233 min. in front of computer, 35 minutes with other media like game consoles and mp3). I read the article once, twice and I couldn't find anything interesting except some numbers. I didn't learn anything new about media usage.
I wonder why none of the research didn't cover multitasking issue that makes it possible for many to extend media time into 9 hours. None of research come up with the slightest attempt to understand HOW people use the media. Would it be to uncomfortable for the traditional media?
It is so ignorant and one sided picture of reality presented by those two research. I don't believe TV is dead. It is not, the way we use it changed and those numbers don't tell anything about it.
It almost cliche to say it over and over again: People are first, data are second. Still, it is hard to live up to this sentence, as we are attached to the old media world order. As long as we don't change the terminology and become more curious to see what lies behind the numbers, we will stand still in one place. The world will pass by.
(Read more on statistics here)
Tags: research, numbers, sociology, media consumption
I have been living without Internet for the last couple of days because my dear Internet provider Cybercity is not only slow at sending me the new wireless router but tries to 
convince me that my connection is not working because of the too long cable. I am not too much into cables, routers, modems and such technological chat, although I feel that it is absurd to claim that I have too long cable! Whatever. I hope I will receive my new gear today and can be ON again at home. I must admit I was kind of surprised how I was influenced by being OFF over the last weekend. Yes, I was kind of restless. I filled my days with lots of activities: yoga, reading, catching up with the last issues of Vanity Fair and Monocle, taking naps, walks, tennis. movies and long discussions with my husband. Even though I had no time or need of going online, I felt uncomfortable not having the possibility to. I was almost terrified by the thought that someone (or too long cable) could take Internet away from me...forever. My hands were shaking and I was looking with tears in the eyes on my laptop, I'd swear it seemed to be sad too ;-). How would I get information, be inspired, book court for tennis and buy books. Arghh. Scary thought. I realized how many things I do via Internet, and how much time I can save. Internet has become the important part of my life and helps me not only to communicate or provides me with information but also allows me to organize many things in simple, convenient and fast way. And I want it back NOW! :-)))
Tags: internet
Nokia's latest campaign for N95 features touch screen games built into the bus stops in London. Good idea and "time killer" application for people waiting for the delayed buses :-)
Via Wired
Tags: Nokia, outdoor, advertising, interactive, game
Today, Jalipo, a new online distribution network for high-quality TV and video content, launched in London. Jalipo aims on being an alternative to YouTube. It offers live events, TV channels, movies on-demand in pay-per-minute credit service called J:Credits (for example, 10 British Pounds buys 1550 J:Credits - the full length movie "costs" 783 credits and 1 hour of Euro News "costs" 150 credits).
Jalipo allows more control over the content to the rights owners and "This is absolutely not for user-generated content. If you were
looking to put us into the marketplace, I would put us at the other end
of the market to YouTube. This is rights protected, territory
restricted and monetized every minute." said Jalipo's chairman, the former president of Sony Europe Chris Deering.
The online network's launch partners include France24, BBC World, GP Masters and Al Jazeera English among others.
It is a very interesting concept with a reasonable price. It will definitely find its audience among those who are interesting in and are willing to pay for live experiences, instead of making o with archived content.
via MarketingVox
Fantastic example of guerilla campaign for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie in Brazil.. It is some kind of 3D projection. It looks amazing and definitely attracts attention. I like to see the people on the streets taking pictures of the projection with their mobile phones ...they will probably send the photos to their friends, post it on Internet, make the campaign roll out from one place on the earth to thousands of people around the globe...like virus. That's the beauty of today's marketing - influential people influence other influential people over and over again.
The McKinsey Quarterly conducted 'How businesses are using Web 2.0' survey in January 2007 (2,847 executives worldwide, 44 percent of whom hold C-level positions). The respondents expressed satisfaction with their Internet investments so far, they see Web 2.0 technologies as strategic tools.
However, as the survey showed, companies don't follow the best-known Web 2.0 trends, such as blogs. They'd rather focus on and invest in technologies that enable automation and networking.
I seems like the companies are still very afraid of having the conversation with the consumers and opening the door for two-ways dialog. The fear of losing control is huge as top crisis manager Eric Dezehell puts it:
"The CEOs of the largest 50 companies in the world are practically hiding under their desks in terror about Internet rumors"
The companies still pretend they can avoid being the subject of discussion that is happening online between the millions of people who are enabled to say whatever they want, express their positive experiences, thoughts and feelings as well as the dissatisfaction, problems and frustrations. But the history and many bad examples showed that opposite you must fear "the venom of the crowds" as the most crushing power in the market at the moment. Today, in the world of mouse era, companies can be build and destroyed with the mouse click. The solution isn't to hide under your desk, consumers can find you there if they have to. The companies must accept the fact that even though they control their brands, there are others players in the market, who can influence the brands and change the course of the storytelling companies control.
Inspired by article in BusinessWeek "Web Attack" - it is a must read!
Tags: blogs, markets are conversation, mckinsey, controlPowered by Qumana
Piper Jaffray has published the report "User Revolution". They not only foresee the global online advertising revenue to reach $81,1 billion by 2011 and expect "a significant rise in prominence of the Internet as a major content consumption and marketing medium.". And it's believable when you look at the chart below.
via Influx
There are more people who would give up TV on behalf of Interet. The number increased with 54% within the last 5 years. Internet takes very important place in people's lives as it gives them the bigger versatality and more control.
You can read more about report here or order it here.
Tags: Piper Jaffray, User Revolution, Internet, TV
I like mashups. It's about mixing different things, like, songs, videos or websites. You Tube is flooded with mashup videos, and you could think that there is nothing easier than mix things together. Most of mashups are mediocre and not interesting at all. In order to create a good mashup you need a huge dose of creativity and imagination, you need to overcome the boundaries and see the possible connections between the opposite worlds. Here is the example of the best mashup ever! My favorite Federico Fellini's "8½" movie with Eminem music. It sounds very strange and hard to imagine the poetic, full of fantasy and dreams world of Fellini's films and harsh, and to put it nicely, not so sophisticated hip hop music. But the effect is amazing, see yourself.
I think it is fantastic there are people who can be so creative and spend their time on mashing up the old with the new. Mashups are the part of the modern culture where all boundaries becomes more and more liquid, everything is allowed and everything depends on the context.
If you would like to try to mash yourself, here are the 5 ways to mix, rip and mash your data.
What have technology done to us? Or what we have done to us by getting dependent on technology. A middle aged man who is crying after his mobile phone. The new wireless, on the go media empower us, but this is very twisted empowerment. The video is the proof that we are living in "panopticum world", the world where we put the leash on ourselves with own hands believing that it is something that gives freedom and power. I think it is sad we can cry over being devoid from mobile phone. I think it is a very good idea to take holidays from all e-toys we surround ourselves with. I practice it each year and it is very good experience.
Tags: media, society, media dependence
The latest research about DVR use from Nielsen shows the ad skipping amongst DVRs users can be urban myth. The data shows a lot of Americans with digital video recorders are not fast-forwarding and time-shifting as much as advertisers feared - they still watch an average of two-thirds of the ads. Interesting is the fact that DVRs owners often insist that they never watch commercials, as if skipping commercials is a badge of honor. (Read more here)
Regardless of hate or love for ads, the ad avoiding is the real behavior the questions is only how wide spread it is. There is still the way to go before it will become the sport of other than tech-savvy viewers. Ad 
skipping behavior will become more popular as technology behind becomes easier - "one click" solution can definitely change the rules of the game here.
Meanwhile there are more tools that allows viewers to block ads
Comskip is a free mpeg commercial detector.
Commercial Skip Addin - add on for you Media Center
Show Analyzer - the most advanced commercial detection program available to the public... plus a little extra
Tags: ad avoiders, ad skipping, DVR, commercial detector
NewspaperDirect offers a service that allows you to get your favorite newspaper anywhere in
the world and on the date of publication!
There are 450 newspapers available from 37 countires.
"NewspaperDirect's Print-on-Demand solution enables out-of-market newspapers to be easily printed in different types of locations around the globe. This flexible and unique solution is powered by the ND PrintStation, which consists of a standard digital printer and a PC with our subscription and printing management software. When connected to the Internet, the PrintStation downloads and prints a single or multiple copies of the newspapers available on the NewspaperDirect network.
To reduce transportation costs and ensure newspapers are available on a same-day basis, PrintStations are located as close as possible to the newspaper consumer. These locations include offices of our distributors, hotels, cruise ships, retail shops, libraries, corporate offices, yachts & marinas and conference centers."
| Interesting documentary about iPod Hisotry from Discovery Channel. Since iPid's introduction in October 2001, Apple sold over 70 million pieces worldwide. An amazing story. | |
Finally, iPhone has arrived! After many rumors, Apple has announced its new so long awaited product today - iPhone mobile phone.
The iPhone is a gorgeous little device. It is very sexy and it includes a 3.5 inch touchscreen with a virtual keyboard, a 2 megapixel camera, runs EDGE + WIFI (connects automatically), runs OSX and has plenty of killer features, like for example motion sensor that rotates photos when you turn the phone, and voice mails displayed visually that you can click on and listen to.
iPhone ships Europe in fourth quarter of 2007, it will be available in 4 GB ($499) and 8 GB ($599).
I like the way it looks and what it can. I was wondering for a while why actually iPhone doesn't support 3G, but it may be Apple has skipped the middle phase between traditional 2G access to Internet via mobile phones and WIFI. And has chosen to use so called 2.5G EDGE and WIFI. Clever? Looking at the problems 3G telephony is coping with across the Europe, it is a clever solution.
I can imagine iPhone will appear on my and my X-mass wishes list this year.
It seems like Steve Jobs has caught a good wave once more and iPhone will prove to be very successful -Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas focused on mobile phones as the biggest development area in the coming year.
Approximately 3 billion people will have a mobile phone by the end of 2007, what will make mobile phones the most widespread electronic device. Mobile phones can integrate many features and services: traditional telephony, music, film, TV, Internet and allows us to reduce the number of devices. Mobile phone can be your communication device, both voice and data, your digital camera, your MP3 player, and finally your cyber window to the world. High mobile penetration and advanced mobile technology allow also to open the new communication window for marketers, that can be very successful when used wisely.
eMarketer predicts that the global market for mobile marketing and advertising will grow from about $1.5 billion in 2006 to $13.9 billion in 2011.
Mobile phones are the new lifestyle technology and the part of our social life. We need to understand their role in peoples life before we begin to use them as advertising channels. As well as to understand the need for developing the content, that is relevant and satisfy people's needs and expectations. We can easily cross the thin line and become intruders on the private territory. Mobile marketing must be about involvement and respect to people's privacy.
"A survey of 50 leading brands in Europe by Vanson Bourne found that the top three categories for tactical responses that brands look to drive through mobile marketing included requests for more information, making a purchase or booking, and discovering new attributes about a brand."
Via Engaget
Read more on iPhone website
Tags: iPhone, Apple, Mobile phone, Wireless
How would it look like if we were saying what we thought. Hilarious. We are such "ego trippers"!
I do believe that we could do better job when we left our egos at home from time to time.
See also "The Truth in Advertising"
Judging from the videos, we are pretty good at producing air, and it isn't even always fresh :-)
Via Adverblog
I have found two interesting articles about television model. Both sets the question mark to the functionality and relevance of the traditional television viewing model. ICM surveyed 2070 for BBC on their online/mobile video viewing habits vs television viewing. The research results can suggest that online video can erode television. YouTube and similar websites are the new channels that allow people to watch and share videos online. There is still minority choosing the small PC or mobile screens over television, however the increasing popularity of online viewing should be alarming for the traditional broadcasters and they need to find the ways how to use it if they don't want to be left behind.
And Michael Stickel from The Ubergeeks asks very relevant question Why isn't all TV on demand?. Nowadays audience is more loyal to specific TV shows, series than to TV channels itself. Why then not to allow people to access their favorite programs whenever they want and capitalize on it?
Blendtec is the producer of blenders. At the first company as many others on the market. They produce blenders, like Braun, Philips, and so on.
But one day company's CEO got an idea, idea that made a difference - he decided to video the tests of blender and put them on YouTube.
The videos are the mix of Jackass and TV Shop. They don't blend morning fruity shakes, but Cola cans, credit cards, and many other things you'd never dream about putting into your blender. After a couple weeks videos were viewed 5 million times, people faved it and commented it thousands of times. In other words, people love the blender.
Interesting is that the total cost of the YouTube campaign is $50.000. Impressive! I am sure lots of those views will translate into sales.
You can see all videos here
I like Blendtec idea and mixing the reality of television spot by adding the TV shop touch with Internet. It is brave and fresh approach, that definitely differentiates the brand. Blendtec can easily fill out the gaps in Marty Neumeier's sentence:
"Our brand is the only BLENDER that CAN BLEND RAKE HANDLES AND CREDIT CARDS."
Via Scobleizer
Tags: Blendtec, Youtube, Video, TV shop, branding
Mark Earls: The Welcome to the Creative Age - Bananas, Business and the Death of Marketing
Philip Zimbardo: The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil
Duncan J. Watts: Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age (Open Market Edition)
Brian Reich: Media Rules!: Mastering Today's Technology to Connect With and Keep Your Audience
Jean-Marie Dru: Beyond Disruption: Changing the Rules in the Marketplace
